In the early 1920s, Florida highways were kept in continuous repair by road gangs of convicts, hauled to work in cages built on truck chassis. Each county had constructed its own stockade to house those convicted to hard labor. Those once fearsome striped clothes were worn by all and many of the Justices of the Peace were accused of keeping a number of these suits on hand at all times for any unlucky boy or man caught beating his way through the county with no money and no visible means of support to be turned over immediately to the Capn of the gang as a vagrant, and some justices were often careless about limiting the length of their sentences. Floridas worst scandal was in 1920 when a young lad from Wisconsin, I believe, died after a whipping by a chain gang boss. Chain gangs are no more and the stripes are a thing of the past. The state immediately after the pitiful death of the young boy, abandoned the use of the whip (a three - inch wide strip of leather about four feet long) on members of the road gangs throughout the state. A sweatbox was built and used when prisoners failed to work -- claiming sickness. I was working on the Cocoa Tribune at the time about 1921, and the editor had received letters of complaint about the treatment of the prisoners working on roads in the Brevard County area. I visited one of these camps and the captain told me they seldom used the sweatboxes as when a prisoner said he was ill, he always stripped the con to the waist and handcuffed his wrists around a pine tree and because of the great number of mosquito bites, the prisoner would always go back to work. I had the opportunity to examine one of the official sweathoxes and it was in reality an instrument of torture. The box was but about three feet across, each way and less than six feet high and roofed with corrugated iron sheets. There was at the bottom an open slot where the food could be procured by the inmate by sliding his hand down his leg and bringing the plate near his mouth -- and then dropping the pan when finished. This contrivance really was a sweatbox as a tall prisoner would be compelled to stoop a little and his head would touch the oven-hot galvanized tin roof -- and no ventilation at all. I wrote the story and was offered $85 by a syndicate for the use of it. Big Deal! I believe every paper in the United States ran the story and as I recall very vividly the old Grit ran with it a full-page picture of a barebacked negro chained around a tree and blood streaming down his back from the bites from the gigantic mosquitoes which were swarming on him; rattlesnakes were coiled in the bushes beside the screaming con and leering guards seemed to be enjoying the spectacle. The poor boy who had lost his life from the lashes of the cruel 4-ft. whip was forgotten when the Chambers of Commerce and other civic organizations throughout the state picked me for their target and more than a million words were used by the newspapers and magazines demanding that I retract and admit an eight column headline which ran: Its a Filthy Bird that will Foul its own Nest. The prisons were operated by the State Department of Agriculture and Commissioner McRae demanded I go with him back to the stockade in Brevard County and have dinner with him and the convicts there. I accepted the loaded invitation for the next week day. First we visited the road gang and I was not amazed to find several of the black members resting in the shade and there was the sweatbox constructed of all new lumber with walls four feet apart and eight feet tall, standing in the shadow cast by an enormous chinaberry tree (there were even mockingbirds trilling in the tree tops). I knew I was licked but I visited the dining room after the inmates had eaten. Many of them were lounging around smoking cigarettes and pipes and their half empty plates showed plainly they had enjoyed a feast. Left over pieces of apple pie and the bones of fried chicken were still on the table. I could not eat; I was sick, but glad the cons had enjoyed one good meal while serving their time. I told Commissioner McRae I would do what I could. I made no retraction. The next session of the Florida Legislature abolished the road gangs, the use of the whip and the sweathoxes.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 18:11:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015